The PCT Hiker Trash Passport

Thanks for your interest in becoming a Passport Checkpoint.
Here’s how it works and how you fit in.

Example Only

What Is The PCT Passport?
The Passport is a 5″ x 3.5″, 8-panel accordion fold document… small enough to fit in your pocket.

When a hiker walks into a trail-town shop, climbs into a shuttle, or crosses paths with a trail angel, they pull out their passport and get it stamped.

Each checkpoint has a custom rubber stamp.
Each stamp is permanent.
By the time a hiker ends their adventure, they have a physical record of everyone who supported them and the places they visited along the way.
They keep it long after the trail ends.

What Is On The PCT Passport?
One side holds stamps.

The other holds what hikers need, town by town: trail angels, lodging, resupply, outfitters, and shuttles. Accessible offline when the signal disappears.

Every passport includes a QR code connecting hikers to the full downloadable PCT Passport PDF… a complete trail resource guide for the entire trail, saved to their phone before they lose signal.

Why It Exists
The PCT Passport was originally designed to let PCT hikers know about the PCT Hiker Trash Yearbook.
Very quickly, it became much more.

The PCT community is held together by the people who show up for each other.
The Passport makes that visible, in something hikers carry the entire length of the trail.

Many hikers do not use Social Media and don’t have access to trail angels.
This solves that problem.

Created by PCT Hiker Trash.
For PCT Hiker Trash.
And supported by those who keep Trail Magic alive.

What Is a Passport Checkpoint?
A Passport Checkpoint is a local business or Trail Angel dedicated to supporting hikers and preserving the trail’s history.

Every Checkpoint will have a custom rubber stamp.

When a thru-hiker walks through your door, ask if they have a passport, stamp it with your custom rubber stamp, and date it.
You become a permanent, physical mark in their PCT adventure.

Even for trailhead Trail Magic, Shuttles, and water caches:
If you support PCT hikers, you are part of a PCT hiker’s adventures and memories, and you should have your own custom stamp.

The Annual PCT Hiker Trash Yearbook
Every participating Checkpoint receives a digital copy of the PCT Hiker Trash Yearbook for that season, a lasting archive of the very faces, stories, and hikers you hosted, fed, or shuttled.

Timeline & Deadlines

  • December 1, 2026: The Hard Deadline. To be listed on the physical passport for the 2027 season, your listing information must be fully confirmed by this date.
  • January 1, 2027: The Hard Deadline. To be listed on the downloadable PDF.
  • January 15, 2027: All payments have been paid in full.
  • March 1, 2027: The Passport officially launches at the Southern Terminus (CLEEF) and follows the seasonal bubble north. SOBOs are included, too.

What Your Investment Actually Builds
You are not paying for an advertisement.
When you secure a Passport Checkpoint, your annual fee goes directly into the PCT Hiker Trash Foundation.

  • The Physical Print Run
    It covers the costs of the physical passports handed to every PCT thru-hiker for free.
  • Markets the Yearbook
    The PCT Hiker Trash Yearbook logo and PCT2027.com will be displayed on every passport; it does the heavy lifting of gathering hikers, capturing their photos, and selling the yearbook.
  • A Self-Sustaining Legacy
    The Passport funds a sponsored hiker each season, someone on trail living the year, getting the vibe, talking with the hikers, and capturing what a desk never could. This is the plan to keep the PCT Yearbook legacy alive.

How to Secure Your Checkpoint Spot
Space on the Physical, Printed Passport is limited.
Spots are granted on a first-confirmed, first-closed basis per town.
One spot per category, 5 categories per town.
Listing fees vary by category.
Details provided upon sign-up.

Founding partners who join this season lock in their town positions permanently, provided they renew each year.

The Downloadable PCT Passport PDF
Due to limited space on the physical passport, hikers can download PDFs of towns ahead of them when they have cell service.
Hikers can plan ahead with a full list of services and resources, even when they have no cell reception.

PDF content includes:

  • Trail angels
  • Businesses supporting PCT hikers
  • Shuttles
  • Trail town events and festivals
  • Hiker discounts
  • The PCT Hiker Trash Burger Challenge
  • Mental health support
  • Hospital and healthcare info
  • Post office updates
  • and more.

Most hikers pass through a town focused on miles.
A bed, a resupply, maybe a burger, and they’re gone.

A hiker who takes a second zero because their town has a music festival or a burger challenge is a hiker who eats two to three more meals, sleeps another night, and tells every hiker behind them to do the same.

The PDF puts your town’s events, attractions, and experiences in front of every hiker before they arrive.

That’s the window to slow them down and smell the dirt, I mean roses.

The PCT Hiker Trash Burger Challenge
Serve burgers? Enter free.

To bring more attention to the PCT Passport, we are looking for the best Burger on the PCT.
When I asked in a Facebook Group about the best burger on the trail, overwhelmingly, it was clear that PCT hiker trash loves burgers.

Hikers will vote on the best burger on the PCT.
You get a counter card and QR code.
The winner earns a custom gold ink pad stamp and a free top listing on the following year’s physical passport.
Winner announced in the Yearbook.
Learn more

Ready to Reserve Your Spot?
Click below to sign up.

Every dollar goes directly into the PCT Hiker Trash Foundation, funding the physical passports, the Yearbook, and the ongoing on-trail documentation of PCT history and culture.

Douglas Hark – “Grateful”
Hiker Trash, Class of 2020
PCT Hiker Trash Passport / PCT Hiker Trash Foundation

Operated in support of the PCT Hiker Trash Foundation (nonprofit in formation).
We protect the history, culture, and legacy of the Pacific Crest Trail.

pctpassport.com